Short Term Technical Preparation Flashcards
What 4 factors most influence the selection of playing kit and equipment?
Climate - temperature, humidity and wind
Playing surface
Indoor or outdoor
Protection/ reducing injury
What does the term technical cover in terms of short term preparation?
Kit and equipment
Ergogenic aids
Reasons for holding pre match camps and pre game rituals
Give two contrasting reasons as to why swimmers may ‘shave down’ before a race
It improves their aerodynamics
It’s a ritual, allowing them to prepare mentally for performance
Describe how environmental factors may influence a teams tactics
If a team is playing on a bobbly ground, they may resort to playing the ball in the air as opposed to passing it around.
If a team is playing a far better team, they may actually reduce the width of the pitch, to give them less room to play on.
Describe the cultural factors that may influence short term technical preparation
The amount of home support, pressure from media may lead to a team preparing differently. For example at home they may be pressured to play more exiting football
What are the key climatic that teams and performance need to consider in short term technical prep?
Temperature and UV exposure
Humidity
Wind
Describe how temperature and UV exposure influences preparation
If temperature is higher or lower than the body’s normal temp, then the performer will gain or lose heat. In colder weather, performers can prepare by practising in more layers
How does humidity influence short term preparation?
Humidity affects how much sweat can evaporate and so transfer heat from the body. For players to prepare for high humidity conditions, they need to acclimatise
Describe how wind influences preparation
Wind can increase rate of sweat evaporation, causing a direct cooling effect on performer, making them need to wear more clothing, worsening performance. This can effect whether to bat or bowl first in cricket for example, due to the wind affecting the flight of the ball
How long does it typically take to acclimatise?
5 to 10 days
Describe the changes to the body following acclimatisation
Body becomes more efficient at thermoregulation. Sweat response works earlier and at a greater level. Blood volume increases, performer absorbs more water from their diet.
What are the 3 general benefits gained from wearing compression clothing?
Injury prevention
Performance enhancement
Speeding up of recovery
How does compression clothing speed up recovery?
It helps to increase the blood flow to the areas covered, and has a positive impact on venous return
What is venous return?
The amount of blood returning to the heart
In what type of performance activity have compression clothing shown to be most beneficial?
Anaerobic performance
How does the compression clothing increase the blood flow?
It puts a constant pressure on the working muscles, stimulating more blood flow, meaning more oxygen and nutrients, and faster waste removal
How should compression clothing be used post match?
Should be worn for up to two hours after, to help the body remove waste and restock energy
How do ice vests lower body temperature?
As the body temp rises, it is diverted from the working muscles to the skin. The ice vests cool the blood, allowing it to return to working muscles faster
Give an example of compression clothing being used to success
Loughborough and Canterbury made a new high tech shirt for rugby World Cup, which was found to add a 2.7% increase in power. South Africa wore it and won, England didn’t and lost
In what 3 areas are ergogenic aids used?
To enhance physical power
To enhance mental strength
To enhance mechanical edge
In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance physical power
Increase amount of muscle tissue used to generate energy
Increase rate of metabolic processes that generate energy within the muscles
Increase the delivery of energy supplies to the muscle
Counteract the accumulation of substances in the body that interfere with optimal energy production
In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance mental strength
Increase psychological processes that maximise energy production
Decrease factors that interfere with optimal psychological functioning
In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance mechanical edge?
Improving human body biomechanics to increase efficiency by decreasing body mass, especially body fat
Improve human body biomechanics to increase stability by increasing body mass, primarily muscle mass
What are ergogenic aids?
Substances or devices that enhance energy production, use or recovery, and provide athletes with a competitive advantage
What are the 4 types of ergogenic aid?
Mechanical aids
Chemical aids
Physiological aids
Psychological aids
What are mechanical ergogenic aids? Give an example.
Use or technology or devices. Could be as simple as a heart rate monitor, or as complex as a hypoxic chamber
What are chemical aids? Give examples.
Either naturally occurring products, such as ginseng, or man made supplements such as creatine
What are physiological aids?
Techniques such as sports massage and acupuncture
What are psychological aids?
Include use of imagery, music and hypnosis
What are supplements?
Legal additions to an athletes diet, because the sporting bodies don’t feel their use is harmful.
What are the 3 main factors for a ergogenic substance to be classed as illegal by WADA?
Physically enhance the performance of the athlete
Be detrimental to the athletes health
Conflict with the general spirit of the sport
Why is it unclear whether drug taking has increased or not?
Although there have been more people found out, this may simply be due to the testing systems being enhanced. Also many athletes claim claim that all they took was diet pills or cough medicine
Give an example of drug taking being ‘worth it’ in sport
Ben Johnson rose to fame by winning gold in 1988. Although he was eventually banned from competition for several years, and had the medal stripped, he made money from his fame for years.
Give examples of the difficulty in classing what’s illegal and what’s not in terms of drugs and supplements.
A performer can legally take ginseng, even though it has advantageous effects, but can’t take steroids. They can train at high altitude to develop the efficiency of the blood system, but can’t blood dope. There’s a very fine line between legality and illegality
What is blood doping?
Practise of boosting number of red blood cells in circulation, to enhance athletic performance
Give an example to show how wealth has allowed richer countries to get away with drug taking
At Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, around 35 athletes were found to be drug taking. However, they were mostly Eastern European, and why they were caught is attributed to them not knowing how to avoid detection, and not being able to afford more sophisticated drugs
What is a holding camp?
A single base camp, used in the weeks immediately prior to the start of the games. Athletes can train in conditions very similar to that of the host city, helping them acclimatise, focus, and maximise performance
What are preparation camps?
A training base using the facilities to be used in the holding camps, enabling athletes and performers to familiarise themselves with the location, used up to a year before the competition.
Give an example of where performers had to adjust their training programme to suit competition needs. (2007 rugby World Cup)
In 2007, the semi finals and final were due to take place at 9pm local time, so England adjusted their training schedule to mainly being between 7 and 10pm, to replicate conditions and get used to the strange kick off times.
